10:11 PM

Nothing can soften the blow of losing a parent, but an upcoming fight offers Jake Shields something to occupy his mind besides grief.

"You have the moments where you're not feeling good, things are getting you down," says Shields, who enters an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout on Saturday despite the death of his father Jack less than three weeks before the event. "But when it's time to train or be serious, you get things done. You focus in and you do them."

When Jake Shields says his father would have wanted him to continue with the fight, he's not merely repeating the same lines parroted by everyone who goes on with work in the face of misfortune. Jack Shields was his son's business manager, always working to make sure his son could get the best fights possible.

Despite losing to Georges St. Pierre in April, Shields finds himself in another UFC main event. He'll take on consensus No. 16 Jake Ellenberger on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 25 (9 p.m. ET, Spike TV) in New Orleans.

Ellenberger has a four-fight win streak in UFC, giving him as much momentum as anyone in the promotion's 170-pound division these days. A win for either man on Saturday would strengthen their position considerably in a crowded field of welterweight contenders.

USA TODAY spoke to Shields recently about the upcoming fight. Excerpts from the conversation:

Q: The reaction since Jack's death has been universally praising him. How much does that help?

Shields: Of course it helps. From everywhere...I've gotten hundreds of messages, heard from my old friends in high school wrestling. He had always been involved in so much. It's just kind of amazing to see how many people knew him and cared.

Doesn't make it easy, but it helps a little bit.

How much did thought did you give to pulling out of the fight?

First couple of minutes I was in shock. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. But I think within two or three minutes, I had made up my mind to stay with the fight, for several reasons.

One, of course, is that he would have wanted me to. He was my manager and my biggest fan, and so close (to me).

Two, for me, it gives an outlet too. You go out there and just try to stay focused and stay busy. It gives me something to work on.

It's been a little crazy, him being my manager, as well. Going through this fight without a manager, I've kind of had to scramble and figure things out on my own. It's one of those things you just go with.

How do you maintain your focus in a time like this?

It's one of those things you just do. I don't know how you do it. When it's time to stay focused, you do.

Of course, you have the moments where you're not feeling good, things are getting you down. But when it's time to train or be serious, you get things done. You focus in and you do them.

Your main area of strength is your wrestling and grappling, but Ellenberger himself has shown some good wrestling for MMA. How would you rate his wrestling compared to yours?

I'm not really quite sure of his exact wrestling credentials. I've watched some of the tapes. He definitely has good wrestling. I feel like I have a slight advantage there, though.

In what areas of wrestling do you see an advantage?

I think all of them. I think my takedowns are better than his. I think my takedown defense is probably a little bit better.

I think my scrambling's way better, which is a big piece of wrestling. A lot of people don't realize how much wrestling is ground-control stuff. They look at it as just takedowns, but there's a lot more to it than that.

Once he gets on top of opponents, it's hard for them to get out. Why do you think that is?

I think he's a big, strong guy. He has that big control from wrestling, and he has good power. But I'm not worried about him staying on top of me. I don't think he's going to take it to the ground. If he does, that's my world.

Although he's been knocking out guys lately, he had quite a few submission wins early in his career. How would you describe his jiu-jitsu game?

He has strong wrestling with a little bit of jiu-jitsu. He does a couple of submissions well, but I think it's still low level jiu-jitsu. That's his biggest weakness.

His last two losses were to Carlos Condit and Rick Story. What do you see in those fights that might be helpful?

The Carlos Condit fight I've watched. It was a really tough fight. He (Condit) wore him out and he outgassed him.

You're known for outlasting opponents yourself. Is that the idea against Ellenberger?

I'm going to go out there to try to blow him out. I don't want to be it a close fight. I want to put him away early.

I want to go out there and make a point with this fight. Coming off losing my last fight in a close decision was not something that I wanted to do. I need to show that I belong back out there.

It looks like his hands have gotten much better in recent years. What are the chances that he tries to draw you into a firefight?

I think his hands have gotten a lot better, technically and power. He's a lot better when he's aggressive coming forward. He can try dancing around and pulling that game, but I don't think it's his game. If he tries playing the boxer's approach, I think he's going to end up in trouble.

I think his best chance is to turn it into a brawl and use heavy power. But I'm ready for that.

How do you get ready for that?

I'm just bringing in lots of guys who get in my face and bang. … So I'm used at least to getting hit.

If you win this fight, how many more do you need to get another title shot?

I have no idea. I haven't thought about that too much. I just worry about Ellenberger right now.

It depends on how impressively you're beating people and who you're beating. If there's only a few people that you beat up fast, make them look bad even though they're good fighters, maybe not that any fights. If they're close fights, maybe a lot longer. That's why I want to make an example out of Ellenberger.

After the GSP fight, you said you should have shot more often for takedowns. What was he doing that convinced you to stick with boxing instead of shooting?

I think a couple of things. Part of it, I think I should have just shot more. … And part of it is, his spacing and timing is so good. People don't realize it's hard to get those shots off on him; he moves so well.

Do you think Ellenberger has that kind of spacing and timing?

No. He's definitely not an easy guy to take down, but he definitely doesn't have the type of spacing and timing of GSP. He fights completely different.

GSP's a guy always fighting going backwards. Ellenberger is not. Maybe he'll watch the GSP fight, since that's my only loss in the past seven years or so, and try to copy some things off that. But it would take so long to learn that game that if he tries that, it'll get him in trouble.

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